Luke 24:15-16

THE WALK TO EMMAUS

‘And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.’

Luke 24:15, R.V.

The story of the walk of the two disciples to Emmaus is full of vivid touches which show that it is based on personal experience. How startling sometimes is the apathy with which we are content to ignore God’s presence in our daily life. On our road, as we journey onwards from youth to old age, Jesus Himself draws near and goes with us, but our eyes are holden that we do not know Him. Why is it that we have this difficulty in realising His presence?

I. In some cases, no doubt, the cause is a moral one.—Vice and worldliness both cut men off from God. The thoroughly vicious man eventually reaches a stage in which he cannot recognise the value of either Divine or human goodness; he not merely does not know God, but he cannot know Him.

II. But Cleopas and his companion suggest quite a different kind of spiritual blindness.—They are types of those genuine followers of Christ, of those true seekers after Christ, who yet fail for some reason or other to recognise Him, who for a time, at any rate, or perhaps in some cases their whole lives through, cannot realise His presence, His voice, His teaching, His willingness to abide with them. There is a real desire to know God—a real longing after God, ‘like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks’—a real cry of the soul, ‘O that I knew where I might find Him’; and then along with all this comes at times a sense of something akin to despair.

III. How hard it is to know what to do under these circumstances; and how still more hard it is to help other people. The preacher can but draw a bow at a venture, and yet he feels it would be wrong always to be silent about difficulties which are, he knows, often pressing heavily on sensitive consciences. If I am speaking to any one here whose eyes are holden, I would ask these two questions: (a) Are you in earnest in your effort to find God? and (b) Are you trying to live as Jesus would have you live? Not every one, perhaps, will honestly be able to say ‘Yes’ to these questions; but those who can may rest assured that God will not hold them accountable for their doubts.

Rev. Dr. H. G. Woods.

Illustration

‘Our intellectual difficulties about Christianity sometimes proceed from a mistaken view of the province of reason in matters of faith. Reason may rightly claim to be a judge of the evidence on which Christianity is based. But for the acceptance of the teaching of Christ, for the knowledge of Christ, something more than reason is required. Belief is not a purely intellectual process. Christianity cannot be demonstrated like a proposition of Euclid by a purely intellectual process. That is what St. Paul means by saying that “ with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” We need to try continually to bring ourselves into touch with the spirit of Christ. We need to study earnestly and reverently the teaching and character of Christ. We need to learn how to see in His words a real meaning for ourselves, here and now.’